i would normally be very surprised by that statement, but then i have to remember you were in austin

Get out and away from town. As BigJohn stated earlier, some of the best home cooked grub is from those little hole in the walls. Usually at a very respectable price and a whole heap of a serving to boot!

Restaurants here in soCal have started doing "chicken fried chicken" with garlic mashed potatoes and gravy. I hate to admit it, but I like that better than those cheap steaks. Nobody does brisket here as well as the one I tried from Texas, though. Must be the wood.

i had a few new beers on sunday during the NASCAR race that were excellent. thought i might share since this is the place for it..

Ayinger Ur-Weisse- i had been wanting to try ANY of the Ayinger products cause i had heard nothing but great things about them. imagine my surprise when i saw that my little beer store got in a case of the Ur-Weisse in their last truck. i poured it in my tall hefe glass, and it was nice and cloudy brown. head was thick with fat bubbles reaching to the top of my glass. nice aroma of fruit, mainly bananas & apples it seemed to me. kind of mildly thick malty texture, tiny bitter at the end, but great all around. rich and full flavor from front to end. i really liked this beer, and plan on making it part of my normal rotation. i give it an 8 out of 10.

Julius Echter Hefe-Weisse Premium- poured cloudy as i expected, but more golden than the Ayinger. not as dark, and more lacy head. smaller bubbles and thinner. fruity aroma again, more wheat prominent. little more of an orange flavor to this one, but not as rich as Ayinger. i know i shouldnt compare, but its hard not to. less bold, a little watered down. good beer, but didnt really reach out and grab me. i think alone, i would have liked it. but drinking it back to back with the Ayinger, it was definitely 2nd best. i give it 7 out of 10.

i saw a few more new ones in the store that i am looking to try. they had the Paulaner Salvatore and the Fullers ESB. i have been eye-balling the Samuel Smiths Oatmeal Stout and the Taddy Porter, but i normally dont like beers THAT strong and thick. oh well, might get a wild hair one day..?

haha, naw, i remember them. it was only 2, so it was pretty easy this time.. a few weeks back, i had 12 different kinds within a 4-5 day period, and i was having a VERY hard time remembering them all. i usually try and take some notes so i dont get my thoughts confused when i am trying several at once. so, by comparison, yesterday was a piece of cake!!

I was starting to worry about all thos chicken-fried [insert meat here] comments. They were robbing me of beer info.

I've still got a couple bottles of Unibroue Edition 2004 staring at me in the fridge. My brother is not working today, so I intent to open one today. So gooooood. Thanks for the review of the Ur-Weisse. I can get many of Ayinger's beers easily here, but I've not yet had any.

By the way, I really think you'll like the Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout. It's not as heavyu as it sounds and is very very smooth and tasty. Give it a shot.

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"I wish I had documented more…" said nobody on their death bed, ever.

I highly recommend you try the Sam Smith Oatmeal Stout. While it is thick and dark, it's not particularly strong. It's a very easy drinking stout actually. Maybe not so much so as Beamish or Murphy's, but quite drinkable. Now if you want a stout that'll make your toes curl, pick up an imperial stout like Victory Storm King or Weyerbacher's raspberry imperial stout, although I don't think those particular two are available out there.

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[black]-"The further we go and older we grow, the more we know, the less we show."[/black]

thanks for the suggestions fellas.. i think i will go out of my 'comfort zone', and get a samuel smith oatmeal stout. both of you cant be wrong...?

ring- i have not seen those other stout's you mentioned. we are VERY limited in what kind of beers we can get out here. i think on my next trip to austin or dallas, i am gonna take a beer 'wish list', and go to a few stores and just see what i can find.

+1 for the Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout. Definitely one of my favorite stouts. Their Porter and Imperial Stout are worth grabbing too. If this will be your first stout, then you're in for a pleasant treat.